Weekly Pick: Nibbles the Book monster

As many of you know, a little book habit began on instagram. And it is instagram that was solely responsible for me buying this book. Published in the U.S. before the U.K. I had seen so many people raving about it and showing pictures of it and I completely fell for the hype. Luckily, now I have my very own copy, I can see that they were all right.

Nibbles himself is totally loveable from the start; a sunny, funny little monster that is not in the least scary, other than for the fact that he could cause your book collection some serious damage! He happily eats his way through three well known fairy tales (Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk) and ends up as part of the story, changing the outcome. Not all the characters are happy about this but if your little reader is familiar with the originals they are bound to find it hilarious.

One of the most exciting things about this book is that it has made use of various techniques- flaps, holes in the pages and even books within books- which makes it even more irrestistable for little ones. Mine literally can’t keep her hands off it! And thankfully the quality is really good and they have all proven to be very sturdy so no problems here with over zealous fingers tearing anything. Everything has been really painstakingly planned and carefully thought out so that a hole on a page reveals something which ever way the page is turned (my particular favourite is Little Red Riding’s furious face peeping through to the next page) and definitely add something to the telling of the story rather than being a gimmick.

All in all, this is a book that you won’t regret buying. It would make a beautiful present as it really is a bit more special than your average picture book (this is not taking anything away from ordinary picture books; as you know, I love them!) and has been written, illustrated, designed and published to the highest standard. It appeals equally to boys and girls and to a wider age range than usual because of its paper engineering and twists on old favourites. If you have been tempted, make the leap. I haven’t regretted it and I bet you won’t either.